Bitcoin price rally continues, edging closer to $600

It’s been a tough six months for bitcoin prices. Between the Mt.Gox drama in February and the ongoing “unofficial ban” in China, there have been few periods of relative stability for prices to stabilize or gain steam. An outside observer could even be forgiven for thinking that bitcoin’s promised rising tide of monetary revolution was crashing upon the hard rocks of the world’s financial system.

Last Tuesday, however, something changed. It’s not clear what changed exactly, but demand for bitcoin finally began to outstrip supply. In a matter of days, the seemingly stagnating price had risen from around $440 to well above $500. Then $550. Early this morning, the price even scratched above $590 on some exchanges. This is the longest sustained price increase since the three-week rally of late December.

If the trend continues, we may well see bitcoin hit $600 in the next few days. Bitcoin prices haven’t seen that high since the middle of March, when China’s fueled panic sent prices diving from $660 to $480 in just a few short weeks. The current upswing may signal the start of the first true bull market in bitcoin since last September, when prices rose from a relatively meek $125 to an all-time high of $1,200 in less than three months. With bitcoin’s new “bottom” seemingly in the $440 range, and significantly greater investor interest in bitcoin in general, prices could grow considerably in coming weeks.

That said, the bitcoin market has consistently proven itself to be extremely unpredictable. While $600 is certainly plausible, there are no guarantees that bitcoin is headed “to the moon” any time soon.